Cricket146;s Healer

IT is 1995 and the ageing queen of the Indian track, P.T. Usha is on the final stretch of her career. But she8217;s up against a torn cruci...

IT is 1995 and the ageing queen of the Indian track, P.T. Usha is on the final stretch of her career. But she8217;s up against a torn cruciate ligament. For close to six months, Usha has searched for that one doctor who will work his miracle. 8216;8216;Right then,8217;8217; as Srinivasan, Usha8217;s husband, now recalls, 8216;8216;we got the reference of Dr Anant Joshi 8230; He was the only doctor who could perform an arthoscopic surgery. Every other doctor was suggesting an open surgery.8217;8217;

Joshi8217;s operation put Usha back in the race. 8216;8216;And for all this, he didn8217;t charge me anything,8217;8217; the lady beams. A year later, she clocked her best 200 m timing at the 1996 Asian Championship.

A decade has passed. Usha is history, Joshi is 49. Yet the patient list of this Mumbai-based sports medicine specialist just keeps growing. Right now Sachin Tendulkar8217;s elbow 8212; and India8217;s aspirations 8212; are in his hands.

Sports medicine seems so appropriate for a man who started off as a badminton player and even won the Bombay University title twice, while at Mumbai8217;s Grant Medical College.

In 1981, Joshi moved to the United States Sports Academy, Mobile, Alabama, for two years. His specialisation was arthoscopic surgery. Then, being the quintessential Mumbai man 8212; a clinic in Dadar, badminton games at the Matunga Gymkhana 8212; he came home.

JOSHI is driven by a rare professional integrity. 8216;8216;I am firm in my decision. The person across the table is just a patient, not a name,8217;8217; he says. Saurav Ganguly learnt it the hard way. The Indian captain wanted a 8216;8216;less than fit8217;8217; Ashish Nehra 8212; he had a bad ankle 8212; to tour South Africa in 2001-02. But Joshi vetoed the idea.

In a sense, Joshi found his calling 13 years ago. He was watching television, seeing Ravi Shastri make 206 in the Sydney test of 1992. It was a marathon innings, in the course of which Shastri hurt his knee, and repeatedly went down in pain. 8216;8216;I was cursing his luck,8217;8217; Joshi remembers, 8216;8216;his agony was being played out in front of me. Luckily he went to a surgeon I knew in Sydney.8217;8217;

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Shastri returned mid-way through the tour 8212; and got ready for the first on-field fitness test for an Indian cricketer, at Mumbai8217;s Cricket Club of India, with the media and national selectors watching. He was declared fit subject to 8216;8216;constant rehab work8217;8217; under Doc Joshi. Sadly, the knee flared up again and Shastri soon retired.

8216;8216;If he Shastri had been playing today,8217;8217; says Joshi, 8216;8216;he would be put through the same tests as Sachin. It is a similar case of muscle loss. But we are better prepared now. Today it is 50 per cent surgery and 50 per cent rehab.8217;8217;

IT8217;S been a long journey from the days when Ali Irani, then the Indian team8217;s doctor, used to tap Joshi8217;s expertise. In 1986, this got him his first player patient, off-spinner Shivlal Yadav. Treating fast bowler T.A. Sekhar8217;s knee landed him a consultancy at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai.

That started a trend. Kapil Dev, Mohammed Azharuddin, Ajit Agarkar, even hockey players like Dhanraj Pillay, M.R. Negi and M.H. Kaushik began coming to Joshi. In 1999, he was formally appointed 8216;8216;medical adviser8217;8217; to the BCCI.

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The biggest hurdle he has to contend with is 8216;8216;fear of surgery8217;8217;. Javagal Srinath lost almost a year of his career due to a shoulder injury. When Joshi suggested arthoscopic surgery, the fast bowler kept refusing. 8216;8216;Ravi Shastri had proved them all wrong,8217;8217; Joshi sighs, 8216;8216;look at Shane Warne and the Aussies, they are always ready for surgeries. We prefer all sorts of therapies, but not surgery.8217;8217;

Other than cricket, India8217;s glamour zone is cinema. Fittingly Shahrukh Khan and Anil Kapoor have consulted Joshi. A unknown young man visited him in 2000. 8216;8216;He came to me with a shoulder problem. I asked him what he did for a living. He said, 8216;I am an actor8217;.8217;8217; The next month, Hrithik Roshan was a superstar, with Kaho Na Pyaar Hai.

Maybe it was some of Dr Joshi8217;s luck rubbing off.